This blog is part 9 in an ongoing series. If you missed it, jump back to part 8 now.

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My next session was scheduled for September 11th which was good because I had a bit of homework. I ran through my song on bass and came up with parts based on what we’d done to that point. Again, a pretty simple song, so a pretty simple bass line was best. The cool part happens in the bridge where I had some room to walk around a bit. 

That same week, I was also invited to play guitar and bass on another one of the producers clients tracks. He sent me the track, so I learned the song and came up with a cool bluesy-electric guitar part for it and a pretty fun bass line (if I may say so) that worked off each other. I recorded both my parts at home in my own session so that I knew both parts worked well together, but understood that bass was the priority for this song and focused more on that. For me personally, this was one of those little moments where I listened back to the track with what I added to it and thought, “hey, hell yea, that’s pretty cool.” It’s easy as a musician to talk yourself down, so you really gotta savour those moments where you feel you’re doing a good job. 

I felt well prepared for both sessions. 

Before I’d left my last session with him, I was sure to ask if he’d have an amplifier for me to play my bass through or how he’d track. He almost-too casually noted that they don’t really have anything “like that” here at the studio. Like what? Music gear? Noted. 

It’s alright though, I told him, “I often find, especially for a song like this, you can just run bass through DI and get a good sound for it that way.” I like micing amps, but for bass sometimes this is truly the secret to ensuring it cuts through a rock mix – just run a clean DI. He agreed and I was happy I didn’t have to rent an amp for this. 

On the 11th, I packed up my bass, some cables and hesitated shortly before picking up my DI. Will he have a DI? I had not seen one in his studio yet, but surely he must, right? At least 1 DI? I decided to play it safe and bring mine anyways. Do I also need XLR’s? No, surely… surely he has extra XLR’s? He definitely uses at least 2 for that stereo mic pair, so no, I am not bringing my XLR’s. If he doesn’t have them for some reason, that’ll tell me all I need to know about this experience. 

I should say at this point, if these are the kind of conversations your having with yourself about the producer/engineer/studio you’re working with, you are probably not working with the right producer. You might not even be working with a producer/engineer/studio at all. 

I digress. 

I was always on time for my sessions and one thing that had also become commonplace was that I’d be let into the studio space, but the producer would be busy on a call of some sort and I’d end up having to sit around and wait for him to wrap up. I learned a fair bit about him during these moments, like how he was planning on expanding his business with some new service offerings. I don’t rememeber at what point he started openly mentioning that he was “more of a business guy,” than anything else, but overhearing these calls made that pretty clear. Production didn’t seem to be his priority – he simply didn’t do the things I’d expect any producer or engineer to do and I felt that he just didn’t really care about the art of it, or ensuring artists like myself were getting a true professional experience and product. I started to wonder what his role was in those sessions he proudly hung plaques from the wall from and every time he mentioned that he was a “business guy,” I felt a little queasy about having hired him to work with me. At least a few times already, I’d considered abandoning the project, unhappy with the direction of everything that was happening.

I slowly took in the space on this day while I waited, feeling the end of our time was near. There were a few photos up of Elvis in studio with his grandfather that I really enjoyed. In one of them, Elvis and his grandfather are by a piano, holding a guitar mid-strum and just look like they are having the greatest time recording whatever song they’re working on. You can feel the joy radiating off the image. That feeling is what I had hoped for myself with this project, but some things aren’t meant to be.

He got off his call and I returned my attention to the task at hand. The producer seemed in good spirits today. “Let’s get some bass down!” 

I pulled out my stuff. “Do you have a DI?”

“A DI? Umm… no, I don’t have a DI.” 

“Oh I thought you might’ve… no worries, I brought mine just in case.”

“Okay good.” 

“You have an XLR for me though, right?” 

“An XLR? Umm.. I should. Like, like what kind?”

“Like a normal… male to female XLR?” I paused. “Like to go… from my DI into the Apollo?”  

What is happening here? This guy can’t be for real. Bro be so fr rn.

Half the time I met up with this guy I wasn’t sure he knew anything about music production, the other half he was wholly capable of running his own sessions. Did this guy misread his own character profile in the morning? It was so confusing and it did not make me at all confident in how this project was going to end. 

Eventually we got it sorted and he pulled an XLR off the stereo mic pair. I plugged in and we got sound. 

Cool, we’re halfway there and so seriously living on a prayer rn. 

I will admit, in all of these sessions whether I showed it or not, I had some performance jitters. I chalked it up to still getting used to recording in front of people and not wanting to look like a total idiot in front of someone who had worked with Michael Jackson. I knew I could play well and I just had to work through it. 

Today, the producer also wanted to record me on video playing. “People are going to love this, a female bass player!”

The comment struck me as odd and I wasn’t really sure how to take it. Surely you’ve met numerous female bassists in your line of work at this point? We are not that much of an anomaly, I assure you. “Are you okay with me filming you?” No problem, I’ve accepted this is just part of the music gig and I’m pretty comfortable with stuff like that. Film away, buddy. He was excited about that, good for the social media side of things. I get it. 

We ran through the song a couple times and got the bass down, punching in a couple spots that I goofed, but for the most part there was nothing wrong with my performance. I sometimes worry about nothing, and maybe if you’re also a musician you can relate to that. 

Once again, I was a little confused that he didn’t have much to offer on the production side of things and just let me sort of do what I normally do on bass, which on the one hand is all fine and good because of course you want to empower your musicians, but it was another session where I left feeling like I could have just done this myself at home and saved the trip over. I’d make a point to ask for his comments on what I was doing but he was always just like, “it’s good” which, sure, I guess that’s positively affirming my own instincts, but I determined at this point that I wasn’t getting anything out of this experience that I was hoping to when I signed on for it. 

He did some quick editing and at about the hour mark again called the session, his demeanour now back to his usual dryness – almost boredom. He’d send me today’s work as he does and we’d book the next session. 

Although this time, he asked that I hold off on scheduling my session. The next session was vocal day and he wanted to bring in one of his other clients to do a vocal workshop with me. I’d never done one before and thought it would be a good experience to learn from someone more knowledgeable than me, so I was all for it. He said he’d reach out when he knew when that person was available and we’d go from there. 

Before I left, I asked about tomorrow’s unrelated session for guitar and bass. “Should I bring my amplifier? Are we okay with DI for bass again?” 

“Yeah, bring your amp!” Okay, great. I was glad he wasn’t expecting me to bring my acoustic because the guitar part I wrote was going to be rad as hell on top of the cool bassline I did, assuming the artist liked what I came up with. 

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Now’s a good time to top up on some snacks and beverages as we gear up for another brief intermission.